Charges Filed Against Suspected Burglar

As it turns out, say police, Kevin Rollins didn't burglarize two Clifton homes, after all — but Devon Sharp might have. And a screwdriver found in Sharp's possession may well prove the key to solving both cases.

On Jan. 3, Fairfax County police responded to a house in the 7400 block of Dunquin Court in Clifton, after a 14-year-old boy who was home alone there called and reported a stranger in his house.

From his bedroom he'd seen a man, later identified as Rollins, walking in the foyer. And the boy gave police a description of both the intruder and the gold Lexus he'd parked in the driveway. Police broadcast a lookout for the vehicle and saw the suspect driving the Lexus leaving the area.

But after the Lexus slid out of control at the deadend of Balmoral Forest Road — and the driver ran from the car — police pursued him on foot and arrested him. He's charged with burglary, grand larceny and possession of burglary tools.

However, when police apprehended the suspect, he identified himself as 20-year-old Kevin Rollins of Washington, D.C., and, say police, he had a driver's license containing that information. But that's not who he is, says Det. Mike Motafches. He's really Devon Sharp, 27, of no fixed address.

When police eventually ascertained Sharp's true identity, they slapped him with a charge in accordance with his alleged identity fraud. They also tied him to a second Clifton crime — the burglary of a home on Loth Lorian Drive.

"We got his real name from his fingerprints," said Motafches. "Then Det. Nancy Reynolds, who worked the [Dunquin Court] case with me, charged him with forgery of a public document" because he was processed by the police under a false name.

But that's not all. More of the puzzle pieces fell into place with information provided by the police forensics lab. Said Motafches: "The screwdriver taken off [Sharp] at the time of his arrest had been used in another Clifton residential burglary."

This incident, in the 13300 block of Loth Lorian Drive, happened around the time of the Dunquin Court crime — sometime between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3, while the occupants were out of town over the New Year's holiday.

"A safe had been pried open at that house," said Motafches. And during this offense, he said, the burglar had "left marks on the safe." According to the detective, forensics tests revealed that the screwdriver which Sharp allegedly used to gain entry to the home on Dunquin Court was the same one that had left marks on the safe inside the house on Loth Lorian Drive.

As a result, on Feb. 14, police charged Sharp with burglary, grand larceny and possession of burglary tools in connection with the Loth Lorian crime. He has an April 8 court date on these new charges. However, Sharp may be in even more hot water, in the near future. Motafches said other charges may also be filed against him and police may straight-indict him on them before the grand jury. As it is, if convicted of all his current charges, Sharp could receive as much as 20 years in prison, since burglary and grand larceny are each punishable by a maximum of five years behind bars.